books.google.com - When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits.And yet the idea of innate limits--of biology as destiny--dies hard, as witness the attention devoted...https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Mismeasure_of_Man.html?id=WTtTiG4eda0C&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareThe Mismeasure of Man

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User Review - lisamunro - LibraryThing

In this book, first published in 1981, Gould argues that understandings about the intrinsic intelligence and human worth drawn from mental testing (IQ testing) based on theories of biological ...Read full review

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User Review - kgeorge - LibraryThing

The author discusses the unconscious errors scientists and researchers make in collecting and interpreting their data in order to fit their preconceived theories. He takes the reader through the ...Read full review

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User Review - jeff.maynes - LibraryThing

In this book, Gould is taking on a body of research broadly centered around the idea of an innate, heritable, quantifiable ability or disposition for general intelligence. The book is organized ...Read full review

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User Review - ElectricRay - LibraryThing

Some critics complain that in The Mismeasure of Man Stephen J. Gould attacks a straw man: craniometry is, after all, no more than fin-du-siècle quackery with which no self-respecting scientist would ...Read full review

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User Review - irisiris - LibraryThing

One reason why I love science is that it's self-correcting; unfortunately, the corrections take centuries because cultural institutions profit from inventions like "irrational" women and "sub-primate ...Read full review

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User Review - lakesidequeen - LibraryThing

This is one of my most recommended reads to folks doing psychological assessments. It tells you what they don't teach you in grad school! Life changing!Read full review

I'm writing this review just because I was stupefied at the aggregate score of 3 out of 5 for its Google ratings. So let me say this with emphasis:This is the best science book that I've read so far (I have read a few).It's technical in parts, but hang in there: you will be rewarded by Gould's beautiful writing and by an expansive list of quotes.The book tackles two assertions: that bigger brains mean more intelligent people (spoiler alert: they do not), and that differences in intelligence are purely inherited (spoiler alert: they are not). Gould spends some time to refute claims that these assertions were true that were published during the late twentieth century: in that sense, it might appear on the surface to be a book of its time, but as Gould explicates, the arguments are timeless and are always worth a good, solid debunking.Highly recommended.